§ 33. Mr. Denis MacShane (Rotherham)What assessment he has made of the earnings of senior barristers relative to other professions requiring similar qualifications and skills; and if he will make a statement. [45604]
§ The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon)Each year, the Government, in assessing the level of public sector pay, must have regard to the professional skills and qualifications possessed by different groups. In the past, no regard appears to have been had to the total amounts paid out annually to self-employed barristers out of public funds on a case-by-case basis. I see no reason in principle why the overall amount of public money paid to barristers in any given year should not be open to public scrutiny and debate.
§ Mr. MacShaneI am grateful for my hon. Friend's answer. He read out some remarkable statistics; I had 838 thought that the previous Government had abolished all closed shops, but one is still very much in operation. Is my hon. Friend aware of the outrage among professional people who serve the state so well in, for example, medicine and higher education? They have to qualify in their profession, work just as hard as barristers and skill themselves just as much, but the amount of money that they receive from the public purse is not remotely similar. I am not inviting my hon. Friend to go on "The Moral Maze" to discuss the matter, but will he at least consider whether the structure within which banisters work should be examined seriously to bring costs under control?
§ Mr. HoonMy hon. Friend is referring to the position of QCs. The Government have no present plans to abolish that position. This modernising Government, however, have shown that they are determined to sweep away restrictive practices wherever they occur and whenever they cannot be substantiated in the public interest.
Mr. Edward Gamier (Harborough)I do not want to anticipate anything, but perhaps one day I shall be able to welcome the Minister to the front bench of the Bar.
In addition to planting the question tabled by the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Mr. Pickthall), which he answered on 28 April 1998, Official Report, columns 65-67, the Minister said on television at about the same time that senior lawyers acting for legally aided clients were doing "a very responsible job", but that their earnings should be comparable to those of their medical counterparts. Now that the Government have seen the figures for senior consultants' earnings and benefits contained in the Law Society's case before the Committee chaired by the right hon. and noble Lord Browne-Wilkinson, what does the Minister say is the proper level of remuneration for a senior lawyer whose conduct in every case has implications for the future life and welfare of the client and his family?
§ Mr. HoonAs I said in answer to an earlier question, it is quite proper for there to be a public debate about the amount of public money that goes into the hands of private sector lawyers. There is a proper public debate about the sum spent on behalf of taxpayers on those employed by the state in the national health service, and I see no reason whatever why the same principles should not apply to those who receive taxpayers' money to fund what are, in essence, private practices.